Jaune - Wish and Proactivity
by Palisades
Summary: A darker beginning leads to a darker story, and soon Jaune finds himself in the center of a maelstrom affecting his friends and everything else. He will have to tread carefully and make the best decisions and do the best he can...he hopes, because everything at the center avalanches out. Supporting new characters at times but the main cast won't change. M for language and violence.


**Prologue**

A couple of years ago.

Bliss pinched her nose and her fingers pressed hard into her face. Adam was shouting and Philip was shouting. She was tired and didn't mind that she didn't take in what the two had to say to each other. The meeting should have ended thirty minutes ago and she needed to get home soon. She'd already texted Anna twice with words like _I'm sorry I'll get home as quickly as I can_ and other empty words of apology that ultimately didn't promise anything.

She could take out all the Lien in her wallet and slap it down on the podium in front of her and wager that Anna's resume could have gotten her at least a strong consideration for tenure at Beacon if she applied there. But Beacon wasn't looking and Anna really needed the money. _But a goddamn bookkeeper at Ex Specs Express? That dump that doesn't have money to run ads during evenings so they stack shitty little infomercials back-to-back at four in the morning?_ Bliss was livid at Anna but somehow she knew what Anna was going to say back to her.

 _Because I can't afford travel and they're nearby. Plus, if they read my resume first, it'd make the interview go easier._

She heard Philip say something, then paused, and slammed his fist on the table and the audience roared.

Bliss knew Anna's reason was a valid one. Both she and Anna, like the rest of the hundreds here that were crammed in this little warehouse in Menagerie, hated the words _it can't be helped._ They were defeatist bullshit, she thought, better babbled by babies who _couldn't help_ but stick their fingers into electrical sockets, not because Anna couldn't get a job because she was a Faunus and had droopy Labrador Retriever ears. But then again, Faunus don't make HR decisions either.

Adam pointed a finger at Philip and raised his voice. Philip stood his ground and smiled as the quiet clapping quickly sputtered and died.

So Bliss was going to go home tonight and practice interviewing with Anna. Bliss would play the bigoted interviewer occasionally muttering something about goddamn canids ruining the neighborhood and Anna would play _Anna_. _Anna_ wouldn't lose her temper and scream obscenities into her interviewer's face like the previous time when a fat balding man asked her to name three reasons why a bitch like her wouldn't drive sales down at his department store. _Anna_ won't blink an eye if Bliss gives her the hypothetical that her salary would be reduced by 20% to cover for Faunus insurance, as dholes and jackals like her have the instinct to one day suddenly go crazy and make a fucking mess of the place. _Anna_ could work in the backroom and away from everybody else because technically her job wasn't customer-facing. Anna would be competent, but _Anna_ would be subservient too.

At least, Bliss was going to drill this into her head tonight. Otherwise Anna would still be out of a job by the same time tomorrow. But the first task was to get the two men in front of her to table this for next time so she could get out of here.

She was reaching for the gavel and was going to finally use her powers as secretary-general for once when she stopped zoning out. "You goddamn traitor." She heard Adam spat. "Nobody gives a shit about protests. This is _Menagerie_. You think Vale police gives a fuck if we protest in Menagerie? Who are we going to protest? Other Faunus?"

"Thugs destroy." Philip said. "Faunus don't. Faunus are better than that. We have three large protests, two in Vale, and one in Atlas, scheduled for this weekend with hundreds planning to attend. People are going to be out, they will see us - united _and_ peaceful!" He paused to look at the nodding audience and continued, "What you propose, Adam, will only give those who hate us a reason - justified, I might add - to marginalize us further, and alienate our few human supporters-"

"Say we have the biggest protest ever," Adam interrupted him and drew an invisible arc with his arms, "ten thousand Faunus protesters show up and shout words and wave signs and we shut the place down from Downhour to Messyl. Then what? Sixty army trucks roll over and we all get arrested and then we let this fucking idiot-" He pointed right at Philip's heart, "-regroup us and say _hey, good job accomplishing nothing last week, let's go out there and do it again_!"

Bliss has seen enough. Adam had always been the lieutenant with a head full of steam and she thought that he wasn't ever productive. Not that he didn't get things done, oh no. He always had to divide the group in two when he was doing it. One step forward, twelve steps back.

Watching him, Bliss absentmindedly recalled how her mother would try out a new sap berry pie recipe and it would always come out terribly the first time. _Bad semblance_ , her mother would say and blame the unappetizing experiment on it. Adam was like that, Bliss thought. Adam was bad semblance.

"That's it." Philip sighed and his shoulders relaxed. "I give up. I can't argue with a thug, and we don't need thugs like you in the White Fang." He stepped aside and looked at Bliss, "I'm sure that my brothers and sisters agree, I want a vote of no conf-"

Philip felt the scorch before he heard the bang. He thought he was getting so worked up that one of his heartburn attacks was coming up, even though that didn't make much sense if he thought harder about it. He tried rubbing the spot where his heart was burning but his hands were surprisingly weak. _That's weird_ , he thought. He tried to say "confidence" again before the pain from the scorch interrupted him and he found that he wasn't able to say it. He saw Bliss' eyes grow wide in disbelief, and then horror, staring at his body. He looked down and saw a new neat little hole appear on his shirt, dark and crimson and directly over where his heart was. That was the cause of his heartburn.

The first thought that came to Philip was how quiet it was after the shot. Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. It shouldn't be _someone was shot_ ; it should be _I was shot_ , but maybe he imagined that as someone in charge of the White Fang's operations, there would at least be a little bit of commotion if someone in his position was shot like this. He was a little disappointed.

"That got everyone's attention, didn't it?" Philip heard his shooter say to the shocked crowd behind him.

"Try me for treason, or for murder, or for anything else if you must after this, but don't you dare deny in your souls that to get the reaction we want, we have to take action! I've killed Philip Costari here and now because I believe in my heart that under his leadership, we would watch- no, allow ourselves to be enslaved by humankind once again! No, the only way to get our rights back is if we take them by force. We don't use persuasion, no, no, no; persuasion implies that we are asking for something. No, we don't ask for favors when it comes to our rights. We take. Forcefully. Mercilessly. Vengefully. We don't need to be soft-hearted-"

Philip stumbled and fell. He tried to grab Bliss' podium but his fingers felt rigid. He landed on his back, his head whipping back and striking the floor with a hard _thunk_ and darkness filled his vision.

"-because our enemies have never been meek in the first place." Adam Taurus declared.

The blinking light shook Anna out of her terror. She looked down and it was her phone with a new message. _Do you know if there's a way I can hide my ears tomorrow?_ Anna asked.


End file.
